Hi,
Syria was the enemy we were practicing against since I was drafted to the IDF.
As Engineering Corps, we had to break through the complicated obstacle the Syrian had built along the border with Israel. It included two sets of tunnel and dike and in between them minedields. The exception was we would be under heavy artillery fire from Syria.
The obstacle, by the way, was a copy of the Israeli obstacle. The joke was the Syrian copy it, but kept it in the same direction 🤣, so we will first meet the dike. That makes the obstacle much easier to open as you use a D9 bulldozer to push the dike into the tunnel and get the D9 to open the minefield.
After the Syrian civil war started about 13 years ago, the obstacle became meaningless as the landmines were used by the rebels against the Syrian army.
But Syria was still a threat to Israel, and it might be the biggest. It’s the only real country with no peace agreement with Israeli. We used to climb to Golan Heights volcanos and look over the border on the Syrian posts on their line of volcanos. Looking over our landmines and learning how to open it.
And now, in a matter of days, Syria had collapsed. A country held by force of the Alawian dictator of Bashar al-Assad and was settled based on Sykes Picot agreement.
Israeli forces stepped into the demilitariazed area without any threat to take positions. The summit of Mount Hermon is held by IDF forces who climbed up there without fighting. IAF is striking day and night, destroying what left of the Syrian army. Israel Navy is taking down the Syrian navy ships. The chemical R&D sites are eliminated. The Syrian army had ceased to exist.
But the new situation might be worse, as the border might be unstable if the new government will not take control quickly. We might be facing militants and local groups, which are much harder to deter.
Take Care
Gad
The Syrian line of volcanos from Mount Bental
IDf soldiers on Mount Hermon Summit (Source: IDF spokesperson)
Puma draging a bridge in a drill of breakthrough of the Syrian obstacle (the bridge allows to cross the tunnel on climb the dike after it)
Syrian Navy losses to Israeli Navy, estimated Dec 12 (Source: H I Sutton @ X.com)